Posts

CANON 12.8-MEGAPIXEL DSLREnthusiasts are breaking their piggy banks for this must-have digicam. It takes low-light and wide-angle shots that a few years ago digital photogs only dreamed about. The 5D's secret is its 12.8-megapixel CMOS sensor that's as big as a 35-mm negative. The imager's full-frame size means you can take advantage of Canon's entire line of pro lenses without shortchanging their angles of view, which is a significant problem in cameras with smaller sensors. And an optional Wi-Fi pack ($999) can send your rich 35-Mbyte pics to your laptop or an FTP folder.EOS 5D: $4,900 (body only), www.usa.canon.com

IMAGE SENSORAll digicam sensors produce grainy images at high sensitivities and in low-light conditions. The 5D's 12.8-megapixel complementary metal on silicon has heat control and filtering for incredibly low noise at high ISOs. All of which means you can shoot beautiful handheld portraits even in light too dim for reading.

VIEWFINDERLast year's 20D had a tiny 1.8-inch LCD with a viewing angle of only 40 degrees - it was tough to see if you weren't looking at it head-on. The 5D features a bright 2.5-inch LCD with a 170-degree viewing angle, making it possible for your friends to crowd around for an impromptu slide show.

CONTROL PANELThe 5D's wealth of options and settings can be both intoxicating and confusing. Luckily, button functions like ISO and exposure compensation are right under your thumb, and the 1.75-inch LCD on top of the camera gives you an at-a-glance read on autofocus mode, white balance, battery life, and more.

NIKON 10-MEGAPIXEL DSLRThe D200 offers near-pro quality at an incredibly low price. At $3,200 less than the Canon 5D, it's almost as good at shooting low-noise pics at high ISO settings. Rubber weather gaskets and a rugged magnesium body protect its 10.2-megapixel sensor, and an optional battery grip ($189, shown here) accepts AAs, so you can easily replace them on the go - no recharging downtime. An onboard database stores settings for Nikon lenses, even ancient manual focus ones, and a history menu keeps track of the last 14 adjustments you made.D200: $1,700 (body only), www.nikonusa.com

HARDCORE CAMERA ACCESSORIES

THINK TANK UTILITY BELT This belt would make Batman jealous. Attach your choice of pouches and holsters to this padded waist belt in either locked or sliding mode. Each add-on has well-placed pockets, zips, Velcro, padding, and dividers for quick access and protection. When the going gets rough, whip out the water-resistant bags stored inside to shield your gear from dust, rain, and bugs. Modular Belt System: individual pieces $13-50; systems $150-295, www.thinktankphoto.com

HP PHOTO PRINTERThis 25.3 x 24.1 x 10-inch behemoth can take five minutes to produce an 8 x 10. But with nine fade-resistant inks and a 4,800-dpi color resolution, its output is absolutely top quality. It can print as large as 13 x 19 inches, even on thick media like high-rag-content art paper. The 8750 accepts memory cards and connects to your digicam via USB 2.0 or Bluetooth (optional, $79). Best of all, it can hook up to your network via Ethernet. Photosmart 8750 Professional Photo Printer: $499, www.hp.com

ANTHOLOGY SOLUTIONS BACKUP DRIVEThere are two kinds of external drives: failed or yet to fail. Upgrade to a RAID (redundant array of independent drives) model to protect your precious photos.This reliable 1-terabyte toaster hums along quietly. If one of its four drives craps out, it can reconstruct your files from the others. It's also an eight-port USB hub, Internet gateway, and proxy server. Yellow Machine P400T Terabyte Storage Appliance: $1,299, www.yellowmachine.com

EPSON PORTABLE PROJECTOR Take your show on the road with this 3.9-pound phone book-sized projector, which delivers crisp 1,024 x 768 resolution at 2,000 lumens. Automatic distortion correction quickly puts you in presentation mode to display stills and videos. Pull images from your laptop with its onboard PC Card slot and USB ports, or use its 802.11g card to snag pics across a Wi-Fi network. Improved lamp reflectors allow it to use a relatively low-watt light, eliminating noisy fans and long cool-down time. Powerlite 755c Multimedia Projector: $1,699, www.epson.com

CANON 5-MEGAPIXEL COMPACTThis lovely sequel to the popular SD20 continues Canon's tradition of ultrafashionable cameras, boasting a retractable 2.4X optical zoom and a docking station for charging, outputting video, and connecting to a PC or printer. The tiny cam (3.8 x 1.8 x 0.9 inch) is available in four fab metallic finishes (violet, red, black, and gold). Looks aside, the PowerShot spoils with a wireless remote that can control playback and printing when docked and 16 shooting modes customized for everything from snow to fireworks. Plus, it takes SD cards and supertiny MMC cards.PowerShot SD30: $500, www.usa.canon.com

PENTAX 6-MEGAPIXEL COMPACTPentax continues to cram more features into increasingly trim camera dimensions - this one's a stunningly small 3.4 x 2.1 x 0.7 inch. A 2.5-inch LCD with built-in backlighting is easy to view even in bright sunshine. Its antishake tech will keep things stable as you shoot MPEG-4 movies, which you can tweak with onboard editing functions. There's also a 3X optical zoom for incredible telephoto shots and a sliding door that protects it when not in use. Optio S6: $350, www.pentaximaging.com

SANYO 6-MEGAPIXEL COMPACTIt's all screen! A huge 3-inch LCD engulfs the back of this 3.8 x 2.3 x 0.9-inch minicam. In addition to helping you compose beautiful shots, the screen lets you review images at more than 50X magnification and displays up to 36 thumbnails at once. There's plenty of room to open a menu and still see what you're shooting with the 3X optical zoom - text and visuals appear side by side. Set the E6 to make four different exposures of each shot and compare them onscreen to pick that perfect snap of Muggs in the park. Xacti E6: $400, www.sanyo.com

MATTEL DIGITAL CAMCORDER FOR KIDSYou're not going to get a high-end, high-definition camcorder for $80. But you can get a toy that delivers amazingly good 320 x 240 video at 15 fps. The included Muvee editing system is crap, but Mattel wisely used a nonproprietary AVI file format, compatible with Final Cut Pro or iMovie. Vidster is the perfect gift for budding Kubricks. Redrum!Vidster: $80, www.mattel.com

JVC HARD DRIVE CAMCORDERTapeless camcorders may have brought digital video to your shirt pocket, but they've been limited by an inability to shoot more than a few minutes in high-quality modes. The Everio GZ-MG50, at only 4.3 x 2.8 x 2.6 inches, overcomes that performance problem with its 30-Gbyte hard drive. It can store more than seven hours of DVD-quality video (or 37 hours in its lowest-res mode). And for the clumsy, a freefall sensor even knows when the camera has been dropped and shuts down the hard drive. Everio GZ- MG50: $1,000, www.jvc.com

SONY HI-DEF CAMCORDERThis cam is de rigueur for anyone aiming to storm the Sundance film festival or make family vacation flicks suitable for the multiplex. It produces full 60-fps video at broadcast-quality 1,800i resolution and in 16:9 widescreen format. The 2.7-inch touchscreen, great low-light ability, and time coding will help you shoot like a cinematographer. Back in real life, however, you can remove the shotgun mike and audio box and this bounty of video tech becomes small enough - 7.5 x 4.1 x 2.7 inches - to cram in a (large) pants pocket. Plus, there's a decent 3-megapixel still camera in it, too. HVR-A1U: $3,100, www.sony.com/hdv